Costa Concordia: demandan al ingeniero por el diseño

En Estados Unidos, los abogados de los pasajeros del Costa Concordia han presentado una demanda contra el ingeniero y de rebote contra la Carnival por entender que el diseño del barco era defectuoso.

13 July 2012 Lloyds List

PASSENGERS on Costa Concordia have filed a new complaint against Carnival and its Miami-based architect.

Carnival is being sued for product design and for a pattern and practice of concealing or delaying notification of life-threatening situations to passengers on board its cruiseships.

The architect is being sued for defective ship design.

One law firm representing passengers, Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik & Associates, said the suit alleges that Carnival was aware that the ship’s hull design and power systems were defective.

In February 2010, the hull of Carnival’s Costa Europa was punctured against a dock in Egypt creating a six-foot hole, roughly a 30th the size of the hole inCosta Concordia ’s hull.

Costa Europa then flooded, killing three crew members and injuring at least four other people. The investigation report has yet to be released to the public.

In a statement, Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik co-lead attorney Marc Jay Bern and Mitchell Proner of Proner & Proner, representing Costa Concordia victims said: “No one got off the Costa Concordia unscathed. Even those who survived and avoided serious physical injuries will never be the same after the horror they lived through.

“These people trusted a well-known cruise industry brand and had every reason to believe they were in responsible and experienced hands but unfortunately that proved to be anything but the truth.”

Along with NBRS, New York-based Proner & Proner and Italian firm Codacons are representing the plaintiffs in their litigation against the Carnival Group and the other parties, seeking at least $2m in compensation per passenger.

The attorneys also plan to request $590m in punitive damages.

Meanwhile, in his first full television interview since the incident, Costa Concordia master Francesco Schettino has apologised. Capt Schettino said he had been distracted by a telephone conversation when Costa Concordia struck a rock.

“When there’s an accident, it’s not just the ship that’s identified or the company. The captain is identified and so it’s normal that I should apologise as a representative of this system,” he said.

“This was a banal accident in which there was a breakdown in the interaction between human beings and it created misunderstandings and it’s for this that there’s so much rage. It was as though there was a blackout in everyone’s heads and in the instruments.”

Capt Schettino is charged with manslaughter, causing the accident and abandoning his ship. A technical report into the incident is expected to be heard in court on July 21.